1. IT Infrastructure: Hardware and Software
Chapter 4
IT Infrastructure: Hardware and Software
There are two video cases and five instructional videos for this chapter:
Case 1 Hudson’s Bay Company and IBM: Virtual Blade Platform
Case 2 Salesforce.com: SFA on the iPhone and iPod Touch
Instructional Video 1 Google and IBM Produce Cloud Computing
Instructional Video 2 IBM Blue Cloud is Ready-to-Use Computing
Instructional Video 3 What the Hell is Cloud Computing?
Instructional Video 4 What is AJAX and How Does it Work?
Instructional Video 5 Yahoo’s FireEagle Geolocation Service

2. What are the components of IT infrastructure?
Essentials of Management Information Systems
Chapter 4 IT Infrastructure: Hardware and Software
STUDENT LEARNING OBJECTIVES
What are the components of IT infrastructure?
What are the major computer hardware, data storage, input, and output technologies used in business?
What are the major types of computer software used in business?

3. What are the most important contemporary hardware and software trends?
Essentials of Management Information Systems
Chapter 4 IT Infrastructure: Hardware and Software
STUDENT LEARNING OBJECTIVES
What are the most important contemporary hardware and software trends?
What are the principal issues in managing hardware and software technology?

4. Essentials of Management Information Systems
Chapter 4 IT Infrastructure: Hardware and Software
Cars.com’s IT Infrastructure Drives Rapid Business Growth
Problem: Cars.com’s information systems unable to keep pace with site’s explosive growth.
Solutions: use IBM storage technology to reduce infrastructure spending and conserve space.
It’s fun to visit this site in class and walk students through some of the functionality at the site. The site is exceptionally fast in responding to user requests for information. In part, this speed is due to the improvements in Cars.com infrastructure. You might compare the speed of Cars.com with another site like Edmunds.com or Yahoo autos.

5. Essentials of Management Information Systems
Chapter 4 IT Infrastructure: Hardware and Software
Cars.com’s IT Infrastructure Drives Rapid Business Growth
IBM’s WebSphere application server helped reduce data center costs and IBM Rational software helps programmers rapidly design, develop, and test Java applications.
Demonstrates IT’s role in standardizing technology and managing infrastructure.
Illustrates digital technology’s role cutting costs and increasing resource utilization rates.
You can go to IBM’s WebSphere site at to see plenty of examples of WebSphere. It’s basically IBM’s proprietary environment for building and managing hardware and software platforms for large firms. IBM WebSphere refers to IBM’s software products, although the term also popularly refers to one specific product: IBM’s WebSphere Application Server (WAS). WebSphere is designed to set up, operate, and integrate applications across multiple computing platforms, using Java-based Internet technologies. WebSphere is a major source of software sales and services revenue for IBM.

6. Essentials of Management Information Systems
Chapter 4 IT Infrastructure: Hardware and Software
Cars.com’s IT Infrastructure Drives Rapid Business Growth

7. Infrastructure Components
Essentials of Management Information Systems
Chapter 4 IT Infrastructure: Hardware and Software
IT Infrastructure: Computer Hardware
Infrastructure Components
IT infrastructure: provides platform for supporting all information systems in the business
Computer hardware
Computer software
Data management technology
Organizes, manages, and processes business data concerned with inventory, customers, and vendors
Networking and telecommunications technology
Technology services
E.g., consultants for systems integration with legacy systems
It may be hard to students to think of a business having “computer infrastructure.” A good parallel is the infrastructure of a building which would include the electrical and plumbing systems, along with a telephone network. Students are familiar with these types of infrastructure. Like these other kinds of infrastructure, IT infrastructure may not be visible to the casual employee, but it plays a vital role in the life of the business. Without it, there would be no business typically.

8. IT Infrastructure Components
Essentials of Management Information Systems
Chapter 4 IT Infrastructure: Hardware and Software
IT Infrastructure: Computer Hardware
IT Infrastructure Components
A firm’s IT infrastructure is composed of hardware, software, data management technology, networking technology, and technology services.
Figure 4-1

9. Smartphones, netbooks, e-book readers PCs Workstations
Essentials of Management Information Systems
Chapter 4 IT Infrastructure: Hardware and Software
IT Infrastructure: Computer Hardware
Types of Computers
Computers come in different sizes with varying capabilities for processing information.
FLOPS (Floating point operations per second)
Smartphones, netbooks, e-book readers
PCs
Workstations
More powerful mathematical and graphics-processing capabilities than a PC
Most students do not think of their cell phones as computers. Yet cell phones have powerful, energy-efficient processor chips that use very little power, an operating system, and application software (including games). Of course smartphones like iPhone and Blackberrry and others truly are computer systems that also are telephones. Today’s smartphones are far more powerful than the early PCs of the 1980s.
90 percent of the billion cell phones shipped each year use some version of ARM (Advanced RISC Machine) chips, licensed by ARM Inc. and manufactured by many firms. For instance, Apple’s latest 3G iPhone uses an ARM 11 chip with a 600 mghz processor speed, and uses only .45 milliwatts of power (compared to a typical laptop dual core mobile Intel processor that uses 25 watts—about 500 times more power consumption). Smartphones do not need fans. Cellphones do not use power hungry hard drives but instead use flash memory chips with storage of up to 32 megabytes. Whereas the latest Energy Star 4 laptop disk drives consume 500 milliwatts at idle, and 1 watt writing and reading, flash memory chips consume about 50 milliwatts writing and reading data, (twenty times less power).

10. Types of Computers Servers: Mainframes:
Essentials of Management Information Systems
Chapter 4 IT Infrastructure: Hardware and Software
IT Infrastructure: Computer Hardware
Types of Computers
Servers:
Type of midrange computer.
Support computer network, sharing files and resources.
Provide hardware platform for e-commerce.
Mainframes:
Large-capacity, high-performance computer that can process large amounts of data very rapidly
E.g., used by airlines for thousands of reservations per second
Ask students if they have heard about, or know about, servers and mainframes. Some students in your class might have direct experience working with servers as network administrators, or as technicians. Most will not have experience with mainframe computers. Be sure to point out that mainframes are still a major revenue and profit source for IBM, one of the last large-scale commercial manufacturers of mainframe computers. They are used often as huge Web servers where they are more efficient than tens of thousands of PCs in processing large volumes of records.

11. Types of Computers Supercomputer: Grid computing:
Essentials of Management Information Systems
Chapter 4 IT Infrastructure: Hardware and Software
IT Infrastructure: Computer Hardware
Types of Computers
Supercomputer:
More sophisticated computer used for tasks requiring extremely rapid and complex calculations with thousands of variables, millions of measurements
Used in engineering, scientific simulations, military/weapons research, weather forecasting
Grid computing:
Power of geographically remote computers connected into single network to act as “virtual supercomputer”
In the past, supercomputers used custom designed chips (processors) and RAM memory chips, all very densely packed, to achieve very high speeds of computation. The most common, and some of the largest, supercomputers today are often made up of tens of thousands of Intel Pentium or multicore processors which are relatively inexpensive. Google has one of the largest civilian computing systems in the world that deals with supercomputer-level amounts of data, and yet is built from nearly one million PCs working together.
Grid computing is similar to utility computing in the sense of sharing the resources of many computers. But grid computing usually involves teaming up remote computers to focus on solving the same problem or parts of the same task. Students can participate in a kind of Internet grid computing program called SETI ( is a scientific experiment that uses Internet-connected computers in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). Students can participate by running a free program that downloads and analyzes radio telescope data.

12. Client/server computing:
Essentials of Management Information Systems
Chapter 4 IT Infrastructure: Hardware and Software
IT Infrastructure: Computer Hardware
Types of Computers
Client/server computing:
Form of distributed computing
Splits processing between “clients” and “servers”
Clients: user point of entry
Servers: store and process shared data and perform network management activities
You may want to spend some time explaining carefully client/server computing because it is the dominant model of computing and has been since the 1990s. The Web is a very large example of client/server computing. The client/server model of computing is based on inexpensive PC microprocessors. Server architecture allows data centers to scale up as need by simply adding more servers (or increasing the processing power of existing servers by moving to dual and quad core processors). Clients are the interface between system and user.

13. Client/server computing (cont.):
Essentials of Management Information Systems
Chapter 4 IT Infrastructure: Hardware and Software
IT Infrastructure: Computer Hardware
Types of Computers
Client/server computing (cont.):
Two-tiered client/server architecture
Uses two types of machines
Multitiered client/server architecture (N-tier)
Balances load of network over several levels of servers
E.g., Web servers and application servers

14. Client/Server Computing
Essentials of Management Information Systems
Chapter 4 IT Infrastructure: Hardware and Software
IT Infrastructure: Computer Hardware
Client/Server Computing
In client/server computing, computer processing is split between client machines and server machines linked by a network. Users interface with the client machines.
You might point out to students the confusion that results from the word “server.” A server is a physical computer. It’s also the software that runs on that computer which “serves” user requests. The intended meaning often comes from the context in which it is used. If someone says we had to “purchase a number of servers,” it usually means the purchase of computers. When people say “the server is down” they usually mean the computer is down.
Figure 4-2

15. A Multitiered Client/Server Network (N-Tier)
Essentials of Management Information Systems
Chapter 4 IT Infrastructure: Hardware and Software
IT Infrastructure: Computer Hardware
A Multitiered Client/Server Network (N-Tier)
Corporations and even small firms usually separate the application processing (usually a database application) from the Web page server function. Although not necessarily on different physical servers, often this separation does involve a separate physical server for applications.
In a multitiered client/server network, client requests for service are handled by different levels of servers.
Figure 4-3

16. Storage, Input, and Output Technology
Essentials of Management Information Systems
Chapter 4 IT Infrastructure: Hardware and Software
IT Infrastructure: Computer Hardware
Storage, Input, and Output Technology
Primary secondary storage technologies
Magnetic disk:
Hard drives, USB flash drives
RAID: can package hundreds of drives for massive storage requirements
Optical disks
CD-ROM, CD-RW, DVD
Magnetic tape
Storage networking: SANs
Connect multiple storage devices on a separate high-speed network dedicated to storage
The cost of digital storage has fallen exponentially along with the cost of computing. Today, an 8 gigabyte USB “Flash Drive” costs about $20. You might ask students what impact they think this might have on the amount of digital information stored in corporations. Or ask students how many gigabytes of information they use to store photos, music, videos, podcasts, and other digital material. On average in 2010, Americans consume 34 gigabytes of digital information a day.

17. A Storage Area Network (SAN)
Essentials of Management Information Systems
Chapter 4 IT Infrastructure: Hardware and Software
IT Infrastructure: Computer Hardware
A Storage Area Network (SAN)
A typical SAN consists of a server, storage devices, and networking devices, and is used strictly for storage. The SAN stores data on many different types of storage devices, providing data to the enterprise. The SAN supports communication between any server and the storage unit as well as between different storage devices in the network.
SANs are an effort by corporations to reduce storage costs, manage information, increase flexibility, and provide near-certain backup. One of the major worries of business firms is losing customer or other digital data. Extraordinary efforts are taken to make redundant copies of digital information, and placing it on separate secure servers, even remote servers in separate facilities.
Figure 4-4

18. Storage, Input, and Output Technology
Essentials of Management Information Systems
Chapter 4 IT Infrastructure: Hardware and Software
IT Infrastructure: Computer Hardware
Storage, Input, and Output Technology
Input devices:
Gather data and convert them into electronic form.
Keyboard
Computer mouse
Touch screen
Optical character recognition
Magnetic ink character recognition
Pen-based input
Digital scanner
Audio input
Sensors
Ask if students can think of other ways information gets into computers. How about digital cameras and cell phone cameras?

19. Storage, Input, and Output Technology
Essentials of Management Information Systems
Chapter 4 IT Infrastructure: Hardware and Software
IT Infrastructure: Computer Hardware
Storage, Input, and Output Technology
Output devices:
Display data after they have been processed.
Monitor
Printer
Audio output
Information systems collect and process information in one of two ways.
Batch processing: transactions stored for predefined amount of time, then processed as group
Online processing: transactions processed immediately
Students may be unfamiliar with batch processing. It’s used when there are large numbers of nearly identical types of transactions and where there is no need for an immediate online updating of records. Consumer banking transactions are usually performed in batch mode at night, and accounts are current and updated by morning. In contrast, an online shopping cart needs to be updated whenever the customer changes his/her order.

20. Contemporary Hardware Trends
Essentials of Management Information Systems
Chapter 4 IT Infrastructure: Hardware and Software
IT Infrastructure: Computer Hardware
Contemporary Hardware Trends
The emerging mobile digital platform
Based on new handheld hardware like cell phones, netbooks, and tablet computers. A new “platform.”
Wireless communications through 3G cell networks and Wi-Fi.
New software apps.
Nanotechnology
Creating computer chips and other devices thousands of times smaller through manipulating individual atoms, molecules
Talk to students about how they are using their cell phones. Are they listening to online radio stations, streaming music and videos, or mostly just texting? Ask them to think about how this new mobile platform might influence how a business is run, or how it is managed.

21. Examples of Nanotubes Essentials of Management Information Systems
Chapter 4 IT Infrastructure: Hardware and Software
IT Infrastructure: Computer Hardware
Examples of Nanotubes
Nanotubes are tiny tubes about 10,000 times thinner than a human hair. They consist of rolled up sheets of carbon hexagons, have potential uses as minuscule wires or in ultrasmall electronic devices, and are very powerful conductors of electrical current.
Nanotechnology is the study of the controlling of matter on an atomic and molecular scale. Generally, nanotechnology deals with structures of the size 100 nanometers or smaller. Nanotechnology is used to create transistors of the tiny size previously mentioned. Can students describe any other applications of this type of technology (for example, medical)?
Figure 4-5

22. Contemporary Hardware Trends
Essentials of Management Information Systems
Chapter 4 IT Infrastructure: Hardware and Software
IT Infrastructure: Computer Hardware
Contemporary Hardware Trends
Cloud Computing:
A model of computing in which firms and individuals obtain computing resources over the Internet
Cloud infrastructure as a service
Cloud platform as a service
Cloud software as a service
Autonomic computing:
Development of systems that can configure themselves, heal themselves; e.g., self-updating antivirus software
Both grid computing and cloud computing allow organizations to optimize their use of resources in new ways. Grid computing allow corporations to take advantage of spare computing power in the form of networked virtual supercomputers, and cloud computing allows organizations to avoid the expenses of maintaining their own hardware and software, relying on the cloud instead. Refer students to the Cloud Computing Learning Track on the Web site.
Most students have unwittingly used autonomic computing: whenever Microsoft or other software company updates your PC online automatically it is a kind of autonomic computing. A more pure form would be if your operating system could call out to the cloud when it faced a shutdown and ask for help in restoring its functionality.

23. Cloud Computing Platform
Essentials of Management Information Systems
Chapter 4 IT Infrastructure: Hardware and Software
IT Infrastructure: Computer Software
Cloud Computing Platform
Salesforce.com is often listed as a cloud computing pioneer, but most of the largest tech companies have cloud computing operations.
In cloud computing, hardware and software capabilities are provided as services over the Internet. Businesses and employees have access to applications and IT infrastructure anywhere at any time using an Internet-connected device.
Figure 4-6

24. Virtualization: Contemporary Hardware Trends
Essentials of Management Information Systems
Chapter 4 IT Infrastructure: Hardware and Software
IT Infrastructure: Computer Hardware
Contemporary Hardware Trends
Virtualization:
Process of presenting a set of computing resources so they can be accessed in ways that are unrestricted by physical configuration or geographic location
Server virtualization: running more than one operating system at the same time on single machine.
The term “virtualization” is so widely used that it can be confusing. Virtualization has an “as if” quality to it. There are virtual machines that are software “machines” which act as if they were a real physical computer (executes instructions like the physical machine it emulates). IBM’s mainframes run tens of thousands of separate instances of Windows or Linux on a single large mainframe computer, giving users the impression they have their own dedicated computer. Server computers can be virtualized to run multiple instances of an operating system also giving users the feeling they have their own computer. Virtual memory is memory which fools the processor into thinking it is hardware memory but in fact is memory located on a hard drive.

25. Interactive Session: Organizations
Essentials of Management Information Systems
Chapter 4 IT Infrastructure: Hardware and Software
IT Infrastructure: Computer Hardware
Interactive Session: Organizations
Is Green Computing Good for Business?
Read the Interactive Session and then discuss the following questions:
What business and social problems does data center power consumption cause?
What solutions are available for these problems? Which are the most environment-friendly?
What are the business benefits and costs of these solutions?
Should all firms move toward green computing? Why or why not?
Most people do not realize that the data centers in the United States consume as much power as the airline industry! Video Case 2 in Chapter 1 is an excellent introduction to this issue. Most large corporate data centers today are located where power is inexpensive.

26. Multicore processors:
Essentials of Management Information Systems
Chapter 4 IT Infrastructure: Hardware and Software
IT Infrastructure: Computer Hardware
Contemporary Hardware Trends
Multicore processors:
Integrated circuit with two or more processors
Enhanced performance, reduced power consumption, and more efficient simultaneous processing of multiple tasks
Multicore processors are the major way computer manufacturers today can increase speed and power. When all processing is done by a single chip, power leakage and heat increase as processor speed is increased. These limitations are avoided by spreading the load across two or more processors operating at slower speeds but which together can get the job done faster than a single high speed chip.

27. Operating System Software
Essentials of Management Information Systems
Chapter 4 IT Infrastructure: Hardware and Software
IT Infrastructure: Computer Software
Operating System Software
The software that manages and controls the computer’s activities
PC operating systems and graphical user interfaces
GUIs
Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows Server 2003
UNIX
Linux
Open-source software
PC operating systems create the user interface, like Windows or Macintosh OS. This interface has evolved from a text command interface to a mouse-based graphical user interface to current touch screen interfaces found on some PCs and smartphones. Most students do not know their cell phone has an operating system. On the blackboard, make a list of the “resources” that a cell phone or smartphone has to manage. Managing these resources is one function of the operating system, along with creating the use interface.

28. Interactive Session: Technology New to the Touch
Essentials of Management Information Systems
Chapter 4 IT Infrastructure: Hardware and Software
IT Infrastructure: Computer Software
Interactive Session: Technology
New to the Touch
Read the Interactive Session and then discuss the following questions:
What problems does multitouch technology solve?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of multitouch interfaces? How useful are they? Explain.
Describe three business applications that would benefit from a multitouch interface.
What people, organization, and technology issues must be addressed if you or your business were considering systems and computers with multitouch interfaces?
You might ask students in the class who are using touch technology devices like iPhones to talk about the advantages and disadvantages of the touch screen. Can you use them with gloves on?

29. The Major Types of Software
Essentials of Management Information Systems
Chapter 4 IT Infrastructure: Hardware and Software
IT Infrastructure: Computer Software
The Major Types of Software
The relationship among the system software, application software, and users can be illustrated by a series of nested boxes. System software—consisting of operating systems, language translators, and utility programs—controls access to the hardware. Application software, including programming languages and “fourth-generation” languages, must work through the system software to operate. The user interacts primarily with the application software.
You might ask students why a Microsoft application like Word cannot be installed on both PCs and Macintosh computer? Why is it that users are forced to buy different software application software for different devices? A part of the answer is the close interdependency of hardware, operating systems, and application software.
Figure 4-7

30. Application Software and Desktop Productivity Tools
Essentials of Management Information Systems
Chapter 4 IT Infrastructure: Hardware and Software
IT Infrastructure: Computer Software
Application Software and Desktop Productivity Tools
Application programming languages for business
COBOL
C, C++
Visual Basic: Visual programming language
Fourth-generation languages
Software tools that enable end-users to develop software applications
Tend to be nonprocedural, may use natural languages
Ask if any students are computer programmers? What languages did they use? What kinds of applications did they develop? Fourth generation languages today are more likely to be report generators and graphics tools for taking data from different sources and making attractive visual presentations of the data. Crystal Reports is the most widely used report generator You can visit this site during class to give students an idea of what report generators do.

31. Categories of Fourth-Generation Languages
Essentials of Management Information Systems
Chapter 4 IT Infrastructure: Hardware and Software
IT Infrastructure: Computer Software
Categories of Fourth-Generation Languages
Tool
Description
Example
PC software tools
General-purpose software packages for PCs
WordPerfect
Microsoft Access
Query language
Languages for retrieving data stored in databases or files
SQL
Report generator
Specialized tools for creating highly customized reports
Crystal Reports
Graphics language
Display data from databases in graphic format
SAS Graph
Systat
Application generator
Preprogrammed modules to generate entire applications
FOCUS
QuickBase
Application software package
Software programs that eliminate need for custom, in-house software
Oracle PeopleSoft HCM
mySAP ERP

32. Software packages and desktop productivity tools
Essentials of Management Information Systems
Chapter 4 IT Infrastructure: Hardware and Software
IT Infrastructure: Computer Software
Application Software and Desktop Productivity Tools
Software packages and desktop productivity tools
Word processing software
Spreadsheet software
Data management software
Presentation graphics
Software suites
Web browsers
Although Microsoft Office applications are found on more than 80 percent of the world’s billion computers, the news in this area is the growth of open source and free desktop applications. Although online on demand apps like Google Apps, StarOffice, are growing in market acceptance, most users continue to buy Microsoft software. Why do students think this is the case?

33. Spreadsheet Software Essentials of Management Information Systems
Chapter 4 IT Infrastructure: Hardware and Software
IT Infrastructure: Computer Software
Spreadsheet Software
Figure 4-8
Spreadsheet software organizes data into columns and rows for analysis and manipulation. Contemporary spreadsheet software provides graphing abilities for a clear, visual representation of the data in the spreadsheets. This sample break-even analysis is represented as numbers in a spreadsheet as well as a line graph for easy interpretation.
Ask how many students use spreadsheets on a regular, daily basis? How many have never used spreadsheet software? Ask the users to describe how they use the software, what kinds of reports have they produced? What are the advantages of this software when compared to older methods—like calculating things by hand! What are the drawbacks of this software that they have personally witnessed.

34. Software for the Web: Java, AJAX, and HTML
Essentials of Management Information Systems
Chapter 4 IT Infrastructure: Hardware and Software
IT Infrastructure: Computer Software
Software for the Web: Java, AJAX, and HTML
Java:
Operating system-independent, processor-independent, object-oriented programming language
AJAX:
Allows a client and server to exchange data behind the scenes to avoid reloading a Web page after each change
Hypertext markup language (HTML):
Page description language for specifying how elements are placed on a Web page and for creating links to other pages and objects
Java, and the Java Virtual Machine, is ubiquitous across the Web. It is useful because it allows developers to write an application once in Java, and then be assured it will work on any Java-enabled machine.
Google Maps is probably the best-known Ajax application. Functionally, it offers some great advances over conventional map Web sites:
The user can pan and zoom and change location without the page being reloaded.
Many students probably do not know that you can see the HTML code of any Web page by the View/Page Source menu in Mozilla Firefox. You could demonstrate this during class.

35. XML (extensible markup language) SOAP (simple object access protocol)
Essentials of Management Information Systems
Chapter 4 IT Infrastructure: Hardware and Software
IT Infrastructure: Computer Software
Web Services
Web services:
Software components that exchange information with one another using universal Web communication standards and languages
XML (extensible markup language)
SOAP (simple object access protocol)
WSDL (Web services description language)
UDDI (universal description, discovery, and integration)
Service oriented architecture (SOA)
Web services is an approach to building enterprise applications. It’s a “messaging system” which allows diverse computing applications in a firm to communicate data with one another without extensive integration of the constituent applications (which tends to be very expensive). In a service-oriented architecture, various applications provide “services” (data) on request to other applications needing data. SOA is a major alternative to installing large scale enterprise systems.
Emphasize that SOA is a method of developing infrastructure using Web services with an eye toward creating applications that draw data from several underlying (usually older programs). All programs are built or redesigned to provide certain information (services) to all other programs. With SOA, developers incorporate each individual service into an application that successfully meets the needs of the organization.

36. How Dollar Rent-A-Car Uses Web Services
Essentials of Management Information Systems
Chapter 4 IT Infrastructure: Hardware and Software
IT Infrastructure: Computer Software
How Dollar Rent-A-Car Uses Web Services
Dollar Rent-A-Car uses Web services to provide a standard intermediate layer of software to “talk” to other companies’ information systems. Dollar Rent-A-Car can use this set of Web services to link to other companies’ information systems without having to build a separate link to each firm’s systems.
Dollar Rent-a-Car is an excellent example of how computer applications, some owned by different firms, can work together to provide a single environment for customers and users.
Figure 4-9

37. Software Trends Essentials of Management Information Systems
Chapter 4 IT Infrastructure: Hardware and Software
IT Infrastructure: Computer Software
Software Trends
Open Source Software
Linux, Apache
Cloud Computing
Google Apps, Office Web Apps
Mashups
Faceforce, ZipRealty, BidNearBy
Widgets
Apple Dashboard, Yahoo! Weather
Software as a Service (SaaS)
Salesforce.com
Ask students to help you put together a list of really interesting software apps they have discovered or used in the last few months.

38. Essentials of Management Information Systems
Chapter 4 IT Infrastructure: Hardware and Software
Managing Hardware and Software Technology
Capacity planning
Process of predicting when hardware system becomes saturated
Ensuring firm has enough computing power for current and future needs
Factors include:
Maximum number of users
Impact of current, future software
Performance measures
Scalability: ability of system to expand to serve large number of users without breaking down
One of the problems that firms face is the holidays when user demand for online services explodes, but then recedes after the holidays to a normal background level. Firms are forced to buy additional infrastructure to handle peak loads, which then sits idle after the holiday is over. One solution is to use cloud-based services to handle the peak loads of your firm, essentially renting extra capacity as needed. This solves the peak load problem and a part of the scalability problem—with cloud computing services you expand as needed without huge financial outlays.

39. Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) model
Essentials of Management Information Systems
Chapter 4 IT Infrastructure: Hardware and Software
Managing Hardware and Software Technology
Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) model
Used to analyze direct and indirect costs to help determine the actual cost of owning a specific technology
Direct costs: hardware, software purchase costs
Indirect costs: ongoing administration costs, upgrades, maintenance, technical support, training, utility, and real estate costs
Hidden costs: support staff, downtime, additional network management
TCO can be reduced through increased centralization, standardization of hardware and software resources.
Most students think of the “cost of computing” as the cost of the computer and the software. You could ask students to help you put together a list of all the additional costs that consumers face when purchasing a computer.

40. Using technology service providers
Essentials of Management Information Systems
Chapter 4 IT Infrastructure: Hardware and Software
Managing Hardware and Software Technology
Using technology service providers
Outsourcing
Using external provider to:
Run networks.
Host, manage Web site(s).
Develop software (offshore software outsourcing).
Manage IT infrastructures.
Requires Service Level Agreements (SLAs)
One common answer to reducing the cost of computing hardware and software is to move the work off-shore to low wage countries like India and China. Thousands of U.S. and European firms outsource their programming work to low-wage countries. Even more firms outsource programming, systems analysis and design, and consulting work to onshore domestic firms. Nevertheless, computer and network jobs are abundant in the United States in part because more systems are being built than ever before (in part because building systems is less expensive than ever). As the costs of developing systems decline, the demand for systems grows stronger.

41. Using cloud services Essentials of Management Information Systems
Chapter 4 IT Infrastructure: Hardware and Software
Managing Hardware and Software Technology
Using cloud services
Small businesses “rent” infrastructure from another firm to avoid expenses of maintaining hardware and software on their own.
Off-loading peak demand to remote data centers
Managing mobile platforms
Balancing gains in productivity from using mobile devices with expenses of equipping employees with these devices
TCO for wireless devices ranges from $1,000 to $3,000
One way students can use cloud services is through Amazon Markets Amazon provides cloud services to major business firms, and also to thousands of small merchants who want to use Amazon software to sell their goods and services. Take students to the Amazon site to demonstrate some of its capabilities.

42. Managing software localization for global business
Essentials of Management Information Systems
Chapter 4 IT Infrastructure: Hardware and Software
Managing Hardware and Software Technology
Managing software localization for global business
Local language interfaces
English not typically standard at middle, lower levels
Interfaces are complex: menu bars, error messages, online forms, search results, and so on
Differences in local cultures
Differences in business processes
All of these factors add to TCO of using technology service providers
If you are operating in a global environment you can’t assume your employees will be able to understand English interfaces. An interesting niche business is software translation services. Do a search in class on “localization services” or go to Ric International translation services to illustrate for students how firms are translating their systems and localizing them (which is more than just translation).

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